What a privilege it is to interview the legendary Jay Graydon. Thank you so much for making this possible and sharing it with us. Most of all, thank you for letting Mr. Graydon express himself freely whilst sharing so many delightful stories. He remains one of the top, along with the dear friends he worked with. A wonderful, and inspiring interview; many thanks.
Jay Graydon is so phenomenal in playing, singing and being an amazing human being. He is so cool. I could listen to him play his guitar and I love to hear his stories.
Jay Graydon is still one of the best , of the best in the industry ..amazing overall musician , producer, composer,guitarist, arranger and a singer as well .
Quote: "I'd say 73 through about 86 was the prime era of quality music". I agree 100%. I love this guy, his music, his playing, his producing. Ever since I heard 3 Al Jarreau's LPs produced by him, many years ago (Jarreau, This time & Breakin' away) I was blown away... Greetings from a fan in Portugal.
I partially agree but someone sent me this funny caption that read, what is the best era of music. 20s, 30s, 40, 50s, 60s etc.... The answer? Anything before 2000.. Even the 90s had great music as in bands, singer songwriters, Rnb, Golden age of Hip Hop....
Interesting you mention these three incredible Graydon/Jarreau albums, but not the fourth one, "High Crime", also produced by Jay Graydon, but with a completely different - and in my opinion, horrible - sound, vibe and feel. So, the prime era of quality music actually stopped in 1983, and it's the arribal of the Yamaha DX7, Simmons electronic drums, and then the other drum machines and sequencers that ruined it all.
@@belsha I couldn't agree more with you. I left that fourth album out on purpose because that's exactly what you said: horrible! Unfortunately Al Jarreau recorded 4 or 5 albuns with those drum machines and sequencers that I hate and many other good musicians did it too. For example, Average White Band, a band that I love, did an album in 1988 (Aftershock) that is horrible too. Those years between 1984 and 1992 (?) ruined good music. But I prefer to focus on the good years and forget about those. Thank you for your comment.
Graydon, Page, Champlin, Foster, Fagen, Becker, Waters, Gilmour, Clapton, Jarreau, Vanelli, Carlton. White brothers, Wonder, Mercury,.. the list goes on. New generations rediscover their music all the time and will continue to do so. Long after Ye, 50 c, Dre, Ice C, DMX and the lot have been forgotten.
Played the solo on "peg" would've made him enough of a legend but my god the man is a genius arranger didn't realise he'd been part of half this stuff...unbelievable
I love and adore Jay Graydon. Brilliant musician and producer. However, there will be one thing that I will never agree with him on, and that will be most probably the only thing...and that´s about After The Love Has Gone. Even if Jay, Bill (and Foster) are the writers, EW&F is light years above Bill´s (and any other) versions . Regarding only the melody in the chorus, what Philip & co do there, just elevates the song to a higher level, higher energy...even if was not written like that, They just made it better. EW&F exactly knew what they were doing and why... When you hear Bill´s versions you hear a really great song with a really great singer. When you hear EW&F you hear something spectacular, you hear one of the greatest things ever recorded in music history. From the lead vocals of Maurice, the chorus, the arrangement, the sounds, the works, it´s just on another level.
What a pleasure, thank you Jay for all the great music. I loved just watching him listening to the tracks, it was as close to hanging out with him in real life as it could have been, and thank you Tom, this was an very enjoyable hour for this music junkie/musician.
Endless respect for all the technical details .....given by Jay.....most folks as listeners have no idea........what goes into making music.....but as for interviews I look for them an addiction I have ... I dig interviews so many interviews and so little time.
Jay is a treasure. He has certainly made a huge musical and educational contribution to the world. Imo, his talent is second only to his generosity and warm spirit.
Im so glad to see all these musical veterans still creating and working to make great music. We should be seeking their advice and input on all music. All thru the good ol internet.
Love this!! Watching Jay listening to his own music, he has the look of a proud daddy. His songs are his children and he has some genius, beautiful children. What an amazing and brilliant person he is. JAR Scene 29 is one of my top 10 albums. Absolutely perfect from beginning to end. I ran into Randy and Luke at NAMM right before it came out. Randy gave me a pre-release cd. I listened to it over and over on my way home. I was just blown away at how awesome it was.
I would say from the early 60's to '86. The early Sinatra stereo albums sound superb. Now it is all compression, peak limiting and over mastering. Just because you have bought plug-ins does not mean you have to use them.
Jays music is literally the sound that made me have a super deep and rich appreciation for music. When my skin starts crawling, I know Jays hands have been in it!!! I can listen and learn from Jay all day long.
Mr jay graydon is a legend! I love the songs he has produced especially who’s holding Donna now by debarge and Roxanne on his 1993 airplay for the planet 🌍 album!
This is great stuff! Love Jay’s voice, love Champlin’s, love my friend Bill Cantos, but Sherwood Ball gets very little mention these days, and he had one of my favorite voices of all time - listen to his “live” version of “She Just Can’t Make Up Her Mind” sometime - it will knock your Sox off, or ANY of his stuff on Jay’s productions. His widow Vicki is a sweetheart, and he left us way too soon. Miss you, Woody.
Yeah and anything with Bill singing doing that thing that he does keeping the melody and all the cracks filled he is just amazing with anything he's given
I'd so LOOOOOOOOOOVE Rake to make another album. Please do it. There are TONS of fans out there I love everything he did and does. Love the guy and his music is of the finest I've heard so far.
We still haven't gotten the long-gestating JaR follow-up. Don't give him any ideas that take him away from finally finishing that album. It's been about 17 years.
Great stuff again Tom, Jay seems to really enjoy chatting with you! I don't know if you'll be able to chat to him in the future again, but if so, I'd love to hear Jay's thoughts on the Planet 3 work he did with Clif Magness and Glenn Ballard. Great songs and production! Cheers!
great guitar work by Jay, awesome job Bill, and I just noticed they doubled the trumpet part by Jerry! Now please save me not 1 but 3 copies of CODE, autographed please
Well it was an event when you got an album it was something to hold in your hand read through see who worked on it where it was recorded it was just an awesome way to connect with the people that made the album
Jay is so right. I love still buying hard copies of music when I can, but JRiver helps with this music at 2496 which I love and how I record all my initial tracks. I like amazon in that I can preview this rather than listen to reviewers who are often wrong. Yes, we like physical media. JUst bought my first download at 2496. Listening to After The Love Has gone and it sounds amazing in Sony Sound Forge. I will move it to JRiver later today. Have you ever considered releasing music in 2496 as a DVD-V which I do for many clients. It plays in most DVD player and use a outboard DAC. Shinny discs are still my FAV. Not really into spendning $40 for vinyl even though I have two full turntable set ups. I have 4 Schiit Headphone stations for great listening.
I’d rather have CD’s than all the other streaming stuff. If CD’s go out completely I’m going to be screwed. You get pics, liner notes, maybe even those special videos they included on CD’s years ago. If I jam to music on guitar I don’t use Spotify or RU-vid, etc., I use CD’s.
What a legend! Embarrassing that people call such musical genius, in many ways the pinnacle of pop culture, Yacht rock! But anyway, Jay doesn't care I'm sure.
This man is so talented both as guitar player and as arranger. Check out G.Vannelli A NEW FIX FOR '76 and Manhattan Transfer EXTENSIONS and MECCA FOR MODERNS albums.
Still have to go with the EWF version. The interplay of Maurice and Philip vocals. Missing the brass in this version and drums too forward. Love Jay with Steely Dan
Jay is lamenting the fact that he can't play guitar enough. I can understand his complaint with the way the industry has gone in the last 20 yeas. This leaves me puzzled as to all of the amps in his studio. I'm sure they are used for his educational material, I will be a customer for that!
